BALTIMORE (AP) -- Baltimore's use of eminent domain and high property taxes have caused residents and businesses to leave the city, according to a report by a Loyola College economist.The city's policies -- especially in the developing Charles Center neighborhood and the Inner Harbor -- have resulted in Baltimore's high crime rate, poverty and declining neighborhoods, Stephen J.K. Walters wrote in the report, entitled "Baltimore's Flawed Renaissance."
Baltimore residents fear the use of eminent domain, and because of that are less likely to improve properties and many ultimately leave the city, the report said.
The report also cited the city's highest-in-the-state property tax rate. High taxes caused the city to give major companies tax breaks and subsidies, money the city could have better spent in ways that helped all Baltimore residents, Walters wrote in the report published by the Institute for Justice, a libertarian law firm in Arlington, Va.
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